Hand-held clipper for removing entangled fibers from the surface of fabrics

ABSTRACT

A hand-held clipper for removing entangled fibers from the surface of fabrics has a grip handle with a cutting head. The cutting head comprises a perforated shear foil and cutter blades rotating in shearing engagement with the interior face of the shear foil. The shear foil is curved into a generally semi-cylindrical configuration having a longitudinal axis and define first and second side faces on the opposite sides of a curved top portion. The cutter blade has a cutting edge extending along the longitudinal axis of the shear foil and is driven to rotate in one direction about a rotations axis, which is common to the longitudinal axis of the shear foil, so as to move along the curved shear foil continuously from the first side face toward the second side faces. The first side face thus located rearwardly of the top portion of shear foil with respect to the rotating direction of the cutter blades is configured to have perforations larger than in the second side face located forwardly of the top portion in the rotating direction such that the entangled fibers once entered through the perforations in the first side face and clipped by the cutter blades can be well prevented from flowing outwardly through the perforations in the second or opposite side face of the shear foil.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention is directed to a hand-held clipper for removingentangled fibers from the surface of fabrics, and more particularly tosuch clipper having a semi-cylindrical shear foil and a rotary cutterrotating along the curved inner surface of the shear foil for clippingthe entangled fibers entering perforation of the shear foil.

2. Description of the Prior art

There have been known hand-held clippers for removal of entangledstrands of fibers or lints undesirably occurring on the surface offabrics such as apparels and interior decorations. A prior art clipperis disclosed, for instance, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,788,769 to have a cuttinghead comprising a perforated circular shear foil and an inner cutterwhich sweeps in circumferential fashion around the inside of the shearfoil. The circular cutting head with the rotary inner cutter, however,is found to be unsatisfactory since it may fail to achieve even cuttingon an intended fabric surface due to an inherent difference in therotating speed of an inner cutter blade between portions of the bladesweeping around the radially outward portion and the radially inward orcenter portion of the circular shear foil, and/or due to a difference inthe number of perforations between the outward and inward portions ofthe shear foil. Further, the above cutting head is also found to bedisadvantageous in that, when a greater working or cutting width isrequired, it has to be designed to have a correspondingly greatersurface area or diameter, which makes the cutting head unduly bulky andinconvenient for handling.

One settlement for the above problems is to utilize a cutting head ofreciprocating type. However, in the reciprocating type cutting head, areciprocating inner blade is only allowed to move within a limitedstroke along the inner surface of a conformably shaped shear plate, andis therefore not expected to forcibly draw in the lints throughperforations of the shear plate enough to successfully shear the lints,resulting in poor cutting performance. In view of the above, it is founddesirable to utilize a cutting head of a type having a semi-cylindricalshear foil and a rotary inner cutter rotating about a commonlongitudinal axis in sliding contact with the inside surface of theshear foil. The cutting head of this type provides a relatively wideworking or cutting width without increasing overall surface area of thecutting head and enables the inner cutter to draw in the lints forciblythrough perforations of the shear foil, and therefore satisfactory forclipping the lints or entangled strands of fibers from the fabricsurface. Nevertheless, another problem is encountered in using thecutting head of this type. That is, when the semi-cylindrical shear foilhas perforations of substantially the same sizes both in the opposedside faces thereof, the lints once entered through the perforations ofone side face and clipped may be easily caused to flow to escapeoutwardly through the perforations in the other side face, failing tocollect the clipped lints and leading to the scattering the lints overthe finished fabric surface. Such undesirable scattering of the clippedlints is very likely since the clipper for the lint removing purpose isrequired to have the perforations which are relatively large sufficientto entrap the lints.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The above problems and insufficiencies havebeen eliminated in the present invention which provides a hand-heldclipper with a uniquely configured cutting head. The clipper of thepresent invention comprises a grip handle with the cutting head forremoving entangled fibers or lints from the surface of fabrics. Thecutting head comprises a shear foil having a number of perforations anda rotary cutter assembly having at least one blade in shearing contactwith the inner surface of said shear foil. The shear foil is curved intoa generally semi-cylindrical configuration centered on a longitudinalaxis and defining a top portion and first and second side faces onopposite sides of the top portion. The rotary cutter assembly has arotation axis which is common to the longitudinal axis of the shearfoil. The cutter blade has an elongated cutting edge extending inparallel to the rotation axis and is driven to rotate in a cylindricalpath about the axis in one direction to move from the first side face tothe second side face in continuous shearing engagement therewith forshearing the entangled strands of fibers or lints entering theperforations in the shear foil. The shear foil is characterized to havethe perforations larger at the first side face than at the second sideface and also at the top portion. Accordingly, the cutting head can bemanipulated in such a manner as to selectively bring the first andsecond side faces in facing relation to the fabric surface dependingupon the size of the entangled strands of fibers or lints for effectiveremoval of the lints therefrom. In addition, since the inner bladerotates in the direction from the first to the second side faces aboutthe common axis, the lints once entered through the perforations andengaged with the cutter blade can be drawn forcibly in that directionand can be successfully clipped by the cooperation of the cutter bladeand the perforations, after which the clipped lints caused to flow inthat direction within the cutting head. Thus, the lints of relativelylarge size once entered and clipped through the larger perforations inthe first side face can be prevented from flowing outwardly through thesmaller perforations in the opposite second side face of the shear foil.

It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide ahand-held clipper which is capable of effectively clipping lints on thefabric surface and preventing the clipped lints from flowing outwardlyback through the perforations to successfully recover the same withinthe clipper.

In a preferred embodiment, the perforations in the top portion of theshear foil are made smaller than those in the second portion such thatthe shear foil has the perforations of smallest size at the top portionwhich is normally kept in direct contact with the fabric surface duringthe manipulation of moving the cutting head across the fabric surface.This means that the larger perforations in the first and second sidefaces are less likely to come into direct contact with the fabricsurface and therefore the fabric surface is prevented from beingscratched by the larger perforations, thereby keeping the fabric surfacesubstantially safe from harm.

It is therefore another object of the present invention to provide ahand-held clipper which is capable of preventing the fabric surface frombeing undesirably scratched at the top portion of the cutting head, yetassuring effective clipping operation at the first and second side facesof the cutting head.

The perforations are distributed over the shear foil in such arelationship that the perforations of substantially the same size arearranged in sloping zig-zag rows each forming an angle with thelongitudinal axis of the shear foil and therefore with the cutting edgeof the cutter blade. With this arrangement, the cutter blade can haveless chance to slice a number of lints at one time and therefore canhave reduced resistive load, giving rise to a smooth clipping operationby the cutter blade, which is therefore a further object of the presentinvention.

The clipper also includes a fan and recovery chute disposed adjacent thecutting head to collect the clipped lints. The fan produces an air flowwhich draws in outside air through the perforations of the shear foiland flows through a feed port into the recovery chute carrying theclipped lints in that air flow for feeding them into the recovery chute.The feed port is located in a position horizontally offset from a centerplane normal to the top portion of the shear plate toward the secondside face so that the clipped lints which flow in the rotating directionof the cutter blades can be successfully collected in the recoverychute.

It is therefore a still further object of the present invention toprovide a hand-held clipper in which the clipped lints can be directedefficiently into a recovery chute.

The chute is detachably held on a mount base formed at one end of thegrip handle. It is within the mount base that the above feed port isformed for intercommunication between the cutting head and the chute.The mount base is formed with an inclined deflector which extends intothe chute in an overlying relation to the feed port. The inclineddeflector acts to guide the air flow carrying the clipped lints into thechute and also acts as a guard for prohibiting access of the finger ofthe user through the feed port into the cutter blade when the chute isdetached.

It is therefore a still further object of the present invention toprovide a hand-held clipper in which the clipped lints can beefficiently transferred from the cutting head into the recovery chuteand at the same time the cutter blade is safely guarded from accidentalaccess by the finger of the user when the chute is detached.

In addition, the present invention discloses a further advantageousfeature in that the cutting head can be replaced by a cleaning head forcleaning the fabric surface. The handle grip incorporates a drive motorand has a drive coupling for driving connection with the cutting head orthe cleaning head selected. The cutter blade is held on a center shaftwhich defines the rotation axis and is detachably coupled at its one endto the drive coupling when the cutter assembly is attached so that it isdriven by the motor to rotate for effecting the clipping operation. Thecleaning head comprises a hood detachable to the mount base and a brushrotating in the hood. The brush includes a number of bristles arrangedalong and supported by a like center shaft which is also detachablyconnected at its one end to the drive coupling when the cleaning head isattached to the mount base so that the brush is driven to rotate by themotor within the hood. The hood is provided with a plurality oflongitudinally spaced and transversely extending slits through which theends of the bristles extend outwardly for brushing away dust on thefabric surface as the cleaning head is manipulated across the fabricsurface. The dust can be drawn in through the slits by the rotatingbrush and carried on the air flow by the fan into the common recoverychute.

These and still other objects and advantages will become more apparentfrom the following description of the preferred embodiment when taken inconjunction with the attached drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a hand-held clipper in accordance with apreferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view of the clipper;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line 3--3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of the clipper;

FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view of an inner cutter assembly ofthe clipper;

FIGS. 6A and 6B are partial views respectively showing portions of theinner cutter assembly;

FIG. 7 is a top plan view of a shear foil in a non-curved conditionshown with perforations in the center portion omitted;

FIG. 8 is a perspective view illustrating a manner of using the clipperfor removing lints from a fabric surface;

FIGS. 9 and 10 are sectional views illustrating manners of using theclipper for removing relatively large and small lints, respectively;

FIG. 11 is an enlarged partial view of a portion of FIG. 9;

FIG. 12 is an exploded perspective view of the clipper of which cuttinghead is replaced by a cleaning head;

FIG. 13 is a vertical sectional view of the clipper of FIG. 12;

FIG. 14 in an enlarged sectional view of the cleaning head in anattached condition to a grip handle of the clipper;

FIG. 15 is an exploded perspective view of the cleaning head;

FIG. 16 is a perspective view illustrating a manner of using thecleaning head for collecting dust from a fabric surface;

FIG. 17 is a sectional view of a clipper in accordance with amodification of the above embodiment;

FIG. 18 is a sectional view of the clipper of FIG. 17 with a recoverychute removed therefrom;

FIGS. 19A and 19B are perspective views respectively illustrating therecovery chute;

FIG. 20 is a perspective view of the clipper with an attachment cover;and

FIG. 21 is a sectional view of the clipper in a condition of movingacross the fabric surface with the attachment cover in contacttherewith.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

FIG. 1 illustrates a hand-held clipper for removing entangled strands offibers or lints from a fabric surface in accordance with a preferredembodiment of the present invention. The clipper comprises an elongatedhousing 10 formed at its one end with a grip 11 and at the other endwith a mount base 20 detachably receiving a cutting head 40 and arecovery chute 80. As shown in FIG. 4, the cutting head 40 comprises aframe 50 supporting a perforated shear foil 51 and an inner cutterassembly 60 having a plurality of cutter blades 61 supported on a Centershaft 62. Disposed within the grip 11 is an electric motor 30 whichdrives the cutter blades 61 to rotate within the frame 50 for clippingthe lints entering perforations of the shear foil 51. The motor 30 isturned on by a switch handle 12 on the grip 11 and is electricallyconnected to a commercial voltage source by way of a power cord 13detachably to a terminal socket 14 at the rear end of the housing 10.The motor 30 may be alternately energized by a battery incorporated inthe housing 10. A fan 32 is incorporated to produce an air flow forcollecting the clipped lints into the recover chute 80, the detail ofwhich will be discussed later.

The cutting head 40 is detachably supported to the mount base 20 by theframe 50. As best seen in FIGS. 3 and 4, the frame 50 is formed on theinterior of opposed side walls with longitudinally extending ribs 52which slidably engage into corresponding grooves 23 in the mount base20. Thus, the cutting head 40 is attached to and removed from the mountbase 20 by being slid along the lengthwise direction of the mount base20. The grooves 23 are formed respectively in the outer surfaces offlanges 21 projecting on the bottom of the mount base 20 in transverselyspaced relation to one another. As shown in FIG. 3, the shear foil 51extends in a semi-cylindrically curved fashion between the opposed sidewall of the frame 50 and supported thereto with latch projections 53 onthe interior of the side walls engaged into corresponding retentionholes 54.

As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the inner cutter assembly 60 includes anelongated bracket 64 having a pair of end plates 65 between which thecutter blades 61 are supported on the center shaft 62. The center shaft62 extends through a sleeve 70 and rotatively fixed therewith. Thesleeve 70 has axially spaced holder disks 71 which supports the cutterblades 61 in equally spaced relation around the center shaft 62. Each ofthe cutter blade 61 has a cutting edge extending in parallel with thecenter shaft and is received in radially extending slits 72 in theholder disks 71 so that, as the center shaft 61 rotates, the blade 61 isurged radially outwardly by a resulting centrifugal force for positiveengagement with the inner face of the shear foil 51. The sleeve 70carrying the cutter blades 61 is assembled to the bracket 64 with theends of the center shaft 62 journaled in bearing holes 66 formed in theend plates 65. The one end of the center shaft 62 extends through thecorresponding end plate 65 to define thereat a coupling end 63 fordetachable driving connection to the motor 30. A cap 74 is fitted overthe holder disk 71 adjacent the coupling end 63 for retaining the endsof the cutter blade 61 on the sleeve 70. Replacement of the cutterblades 61 can be easily made by removing the cap 74. The inner cutterassembly 60 thus formed is received within the frame 50 in apredetermined relation thereto such that the center shaft 62 has itsrotation axis in coincidence with a longitudinal axis of the shear foil51, as shown in FIG. 3. In this condition, the end plates 65 of thebracket 64 engage into top-open notches 56 formed respectively in theopposed ends of the frame 50, and at the same time the bracket 64 isengaged at its lateral end 68 into a recess 57 adjacent the notch 56. Asbest seen in FIGS. 6A and 6B, each of the end plates 65 is formed in itsperiphery with a groove 67 into which engages a corresponding ridges 58formed on the periphery of each notch 56 for preventing undesirableaxial shifting of the cutter assembly 60 within the frame 50. As shownin FIG. 3, the bracket 64 has its interior surface curved along thecircular path of the cutter blades 61. The exterior of the bracket 64 isso configured as to fit inside of the flange 21 projecting downwardlyfrom the mount base 20 for exact positioning of the cutter assembly 60within the frame 50 and in relation to the mount base 20.

Projecting downwardly from the mid portion of the housing 10 is a jaw 28which closes the rear end of the cutting head 40. The jaw 28 is providedwith a drive socket 36 into which the coupling end 63 of the centershaft 62 is detachably engaged for establishing a driving connectionfrom the motor 30 to the center shaft 62. Thereby, the cutter blades 61are driven to rotate in one direction, i.e., in the counterclockwisedirection in FIG. 3. The drive socket 36 is formed in the center of apulley 35 rotatively supported within the jaw 28 and coupled by a belt34 to a spindle 33 into which the output shaft 31 of the motor 30engages. The spindle 33 is formed integrally on the rear end of the fan32 so that the fan 32 is simultaneously driven to rotate for producingan air flow collecting the clipped lints into the chute 80.

The shear foil 51 has a number of perforations 55 of different sizesarranged in a particular order over the effective surface of the shearfoil 51, as shown in FIG. 7 (although the perforations in the centerportion of the shear plate are omitted). The perforations 55 aregenerally classified into three types depending upon their sizes, i.e.,perforations 55L of large sizes, perforations 55M of medium sizes, andperforations 55S of small sizes. The large perforations 55L aredistributed in a portion which defines one side face (down-cut side) 51Dof the semi-cylindrically curved shear foil 51 located rearwardly of thetop end portion 51T with respect to the rotating direction of the cutterblades 61, while the medium perforations 55M are distributed in aportion which defines the opposite side face (up-cut side) 51U of theshear foil 51 located forwardly of the top end portion 51T with respectto the rotating direction of the cutter blades 61. The smallperforations 55S are distributed in the top portion 51T of the shearfoil 51. Further, the perforations 55L, 55M, 55S are arranged alongsloping zig-zag rows each forming an angle ⊖ of about 10° with thelongitudinal axis of the shear foil 51. Such relation is particularlyadvantageous for the large perforations 55L by the reason as discussedlater. As seen in the figure, the large perforations 55L are preferablyto be made gradually smaller toward the top portion of the shear foil51T than at the end. The shear foil 51 has additional round holes 59which are distributed around an effective cutting zone including theperforations 55L, 55M, and 55S in order to facilitate to curve the shearfoil 51 into the desired configuration.

In operation, the clipper is manipulated to move the cutting head acrossthe fabric surface S in a direction generally perpendicular to thelongitudinal axis of the cutting head 40, as shown in FIG. 8, to removelints L on the surface S. When moving the cutting head 40 in thedirection with the down-cut side 51D facing forward, as shown in FIG. 9,relatively large and tall lints L will enter the large perforations 55Land be cut by the cooperation of the cutter blades 61, during which therotating cutter blades 61 act to forcibly draw the lints L entering theperforations 55L in the rotating direction, as shown in FIG. 11, tothereby assure successful clipping of the lints L from the fabricsurface S. When moving the cutting head 40 in the direction with theup-cut side 51U facing forward, as shown in FIG. 10, medium sized lintsL will be caught by the corresponding perforations 55M in the up-cutside 51U of the shear foil 51 and cut by the rotating cutter blades 61.In either case, the small perforations 55S in the top portion of theshear foil 51 act to cut relatively small and tiny lints L from thefabric surface S. Thus, the lints of differing sizes can be successfullyclipped by selectively moving the cutting head 40 in the directions withthe down-cut side and up-cut side of the shear foil 51 facing forward.During the above clipping operations, the cutting head 40 is normallymanipulated to have only the top portion 51T of the shear foil 51 indirect contact with the fabric surface S so that the small perforations55S will act to clip only the tiny lints and not to substantially damageor harshen the fabric surface. It should be noted at this point that,since the perforations, particularly the large ones 55L are arranged onthe zig-zag sloping rows as discussed with reference to FIG. 7, eachcutter blade 61 will have less chance to simultaneously engage a largenumber of lints and therefore can have a reduced resistive load,ensuring a smooth clipping operation. Further, because of the cutterblades 61 are radially movable and urged by the centrifugal force intocontact with the inside face of the shear foil 51, even when the cutterblade 61 becomes entangled heavily with the lints, it is permitted toretard radially inwardly so as to be disengaged therefrom, therebypreventing accidental stopping of the cutter blade and assuringcontinued clipping operation. The cutter blades 61 may be alternatelyurged radially outwardly by means of additional springs or by inherentresiliency given to the inner blades.

The clipped lints are then carried on the air flow produced by the fan32 into the recovery chute 80 through a feed port 24 formed in the mountbase 20. The feed port 24 extends longitudinally of the mount base 20 tocover the length of the cutter blades 61 and, as best shown in FIG. 3,it is offset laterally from the center of the mount base 20 toward theup-cut side of the shear foil 51 so that the clipped lints can bedirected through the feed port 24 into the chute 80 as the cutter blades61 rotates. For effectively guiding the clipped lints through the feedport 24, one of the flanges 21 has its inner surface 22 inclinedcontiguous with the edge of the feed port 24. The chute 80 has in itsbottom collection port 82 in registration with the feed port 24 and hasits rear end closed by an end plate 83 with a filtered port 84. Thefiltered port 84 communicates with an intake port 15 formed in the frontface of the grip 11 forwardly of the fan 32. Exhaust ports 16 are formedin the side wall of the front end of the grip 11 in such a manner tosurround the fan 32 to escape the air flow outwardly of the grip 11. Aspreviously stated, the fan 32 is driven to rotate simultaneously withthe clipping operation of the cutting head 40 to produce the air flow bydrawing the outside air through the perforations of the shear foil 51,the feed port 24, the collection port 82, filtered port 84, the intakeport 15, and directed outwardly through the exhaust port 16. Thus, theclipped lints are carried by the air flow into the chute 80 and retainedtherein as the air flow passes the filtered port 84. It is noted, inthis connection, that since the shear foil 51 has the largerperforations 55L only at the first side face and has smallerperforations 55M and 55S at the other portions, the perforated area ofthe entire shear foil can be reduced as compared to the case when thelarger perforations are distributed over the entire shear foil so thatthe air flow developed by the fan 32 can be made stronger foreffectively collecting the clipped lints into the chute 80.

FIG. 12 illustrates a cleaning head 90 which may be attached to themount base 20 in place of the above cutting head 40 for removing dustsfrom the fabric surface and collecting the same into the common chute80. The cleaning head 90 is designed to have substantially the sameexterior configuration to the cutter assembly 40 and comprises a coverframe 100 and a brush assembly 110. The cover frame 100 has a pair ofribs 102 on the upper inner ends thereof and is detachably supported tothe mount base 20, in the like manner as the cutting head 40, by slidingengagement of the ribs 102 with the grooves 23 in the mount base 20. Thebottom of the cover frame 100 has a plurality of parallel slits 101which extend transversely and are spaced in the lengthwise direction ofthe cover frame 100. As shown in FIG. 15, the brush assembly 110includes a center drive shaft 112 carrying a number of bristles 111arranged circumferentially and along the drive shaft 112. The driveshaft 112 is supported by a like bracket 114 which is in turn supportedto the cover frame 100 with end plates 115 of the bracket 114 receivedin corresponding notches 106 formed respectively in the end walls of thecover frame 100. For exact positioning of the brush assembly 110 withinthe cover frame 100, the bracket 114 has its laterally projectingportion 117 engaged in a recess 107 adjacent the notch 106, while aridge 108 on the periphery of each notch 106 engages into acorresponding groove 116 formed in each of the end plates 115. One endof the center drive shaft 112 extends outwardly to define thereat acoupling end 113 which is detachably inserted into the drive socket 36.The brush assembly 110 is coupled to the cover frame 100 such that, asshown in FIG. 14, the ends of the bristles 111 project through theindividual slits 101. Thus, by moving the cutting head on the fabricsurface in the direction parallel to the slits 101, as shown in FIG. 16,the dust or the lints remaining on the fabric surface S can be brushedaway by the bristles 111 driven by the motor 30 to rotate in onedirection, and be then collected into the recovery chute 80 as carriedby the air flow produced by the fan 32. In this manner, the hand-heldlint removing clipper of the present invention can be readilytransformed to a cleaning device simply by replacing the cutting head 40by the cleaning head 90 so that the clipped lints and the dust remainingon the fabric surface can be successfully collected in the common chute80 in the above cleaning operation subsequent to the clipping operation.With the provision of projecting the ends of the brush through the slits101 in the bottom of the cover frame 100, the brush can be preventedfrom dragging in the fabric and therefore from harming the same.Further, because of that the cover frame 100 is open only at the slits101 to have a reduced opening area, the air flow produced by the fan 32can be made sufficiently strong to draw in the dust or the clipped lintswithout leaving the dust on the fabric surface.

FIG. 17 illustrates a modification of the above embodiment which isgenerally similar in construction to the above embodiments. Therefore,like parts are designated by like numerals with the suffix letter of"A". In this modification, a mount base 20A is formed with an deflector25 which extends from one lateral edge of a feed port 24A upwardly andinwardly into a chute 80A in such an inclined fashion to extend over thefeed port 24A. The deflector 25 is advantageous for guiding the air flowcarrying the clipped lints L and dust into the chute 80A and also forpreventing access of finger to an inner cutter assembly 60A in acondition where the chute 80A is removed from the mount base 20A, asshown in FIG. 18. In this connection, the mount base 20A has a stopbutton 39 which is normally depressed by the chute 80A and is releasedwhen the chute 80A is removed so as to deenergize the motor and stoprotating the cutter assembly 40A and fan 32 for safe handling as well asfor preventing the clipped lints from flowing outwardly out of the feedport 24A. Also in the modification, the chute 80A is designed toincludes a bottom lid 81 with a collection port 82A, as shown in FIGS.19A and 19B. The lid 81 is held by a pivot pin 85 and is clicked into aclosed position of FIG. 19A by engaging click projections 87 (only oneof which is seen in the figure) with corresponding dents (not seen)formed in the inner surfaces of side skirts 86. A lever 88 is formed onthe sides of the lid 81 for opening thereof to dispose of the collectedlints and dust, as shown in FIG. 19B. In the modification, the innercutter assembly 60A is shown to have ring-shaped holder disks 71Abetween which the cutter blades 61A are held in parallel with the centerdrive shaft 62A and with the cutting edges projecting outwardly of theend holder disks 71A for shearing relation with the interior face of ashear foil 51A.

As shown in FIG. 20, the cutting head 40A may be fitted with anattachment cover 120 of which bottom is laterally divided by centermember 121 into two sections each having a plurality of access openings122. The center member 121 acts as a spacer, as shown in FIG. 21, tokeep the top end of the shear foil 51A away from the fabric surface by adistance T corresponding to the thickness of the center member 121,while the openings 122 allow the shear foil 51A to catch therethroughrelatively tall lints or strands of fibers, thereby enabling to cliponly the entangled heads of the fiber strands while preventing the fiberstrands from being excessively clipped.

What is claimed is:
 1. A hand-held clipper for removing entangled fibersfrom the surface of fabrics comprising:a grip handle with a cuttinghead; said cutting head comprising a shear foil having a number ofperforations and a rotary cutter assembly having at least one cutterblade in shearing relation with the inner surface of said shear foil;said shear foil being curved into a generally semi-cylindricalconfiguration to have a longitudinal axis and define a top portion andfirst and second side faces on opposite sides of said top portion; saidrotary cutter assembly having a rotation axis which is common to saidlongitudinal axis of said shear foil; said blade having an elongatedcutting edge extending in parallel to said rotation axis and beingdriven to rotate thereabout in one direction to move from said firstside face to said second side face in continuous shearing engagementtherewith for shearing the entangled strands of fibers entering theperforations in said shear foil; and said shear foil having theperforations larger at said first side face than at said second sideface and at the top portion.
 2. A hand-held clipper as set forth inclaim 1, wherein said shear foil has the perforations larger at saidsecond side face than at said top portion.
 3. A hand-held clipper as setforth in claim 1, wherein said perforations of substantially same sizeare arranged in sloping rows angled with a straight line extendinglengthwise in parallel with said longitudinal axis.
 4. A hand-heldclipper as set forth in claim 1, including a recovery chute, and a fanproducing an air flow which draws in outside air through theperforations of said shear foil and flows through a feed port into saidrecovery chute carrying said clipped fiber strands in said air flow forcollecting them into said recovery chute,said feed port arranged to behorizontally offset from a center plane including the commonlongitudinal axis of said cutter assembly and the top portion of saidshear foil toward said second side face.
 5. A hand-held clipper as setforth in claim 4, wherein said feed port is formed in a mount base whichis provided at one end of said grip handle to detachably hold saidcutting head and said recovery chute on the lower and upper surfacethereof, respectively, said mount base being formed with a deflectorwhich extends into said recovery chute in an overlying relation to saidfeed port.
 6. A hand-held clipper for removing entangled fibers from thesurface of fabrics comprising:a grip handle with a mount base detachablyholding a cutting head, said grip handle incorporating a drive source ofrotation; said cutting head comprising a shear foil having a number ofperforations and a rotary cutter assembly having at least one cutterblade in shearing contact with the inner surface of said shear foil;said shear foil being curved into a generally semi-cylindricalconfiguration to have a longitudinal axis and define a top portion andfirst and second side faces on opposite sides of said top portion; saidrotary cutter assembly having a drive shaft extending in coincidencewith the longitudinal axis of said shear foil and carrying said cutterblade which has an elongated cutting edge extending in parallel to saiddrive shaft; said drive shaft having its one end detachably connected tosaid drive source of rotation by means of a drive coupling provided atthe grip handle adjacent to said mount base in order to rotate saidcutter blade about the drive shaft in one direction to move from saidfirst side face to said second side face in continuous shearingengagement therewith for shearing the entangled strands of fibersentering the perforations in said shear foil; a cleaning head which iscapable of replacing said cutter assembly and which comprises a coverframe detachable to said mount base and a brush received within saidcover frame, said brush having a center drive shaft of which one end isdetachably connectable to said drive coupling so that the brush isdriven to rotate within said cover frame in one direction; said coverframe provided in its bottom with a plurality of slits which extend in adirection generally perpendicular to said center drive shaft and spacedin the direction of said center drive shaft; said brush comprising aplurality of bristles arranged along said center shaft to have theirends projecting outwardly through said slits for brushing a fabricsurface across which the bottom of said cover frame is manipulated tomove.
 7. A hand-held clipper as set forth in claim 6, wherein said shearfoil has the perforations larger at said first side face at said secondside face and at the top portion.
 8. A hand-held clipper as set forth inclaim 7, wherein said shear foil has the perforations larger at saidsecond side face than at the top portion.
 9. A hand-held clipper as setforth in claim 6, including a recovery chute, and a fan producing an airflow which draws in outside air through the perforations of said shearfoil when said cutting head is held on said mount base and which flowsthrough a feed port into said recovery chute carrying said clipped fiberstrands in said air flow for collecting them into said recoverychute;said air flow drawing in outside air through the slit of saidcover frame when said cleaning head is held on said mount base andflowing through said feed port into said recovery chute as carryingdusts or lints brushed away from the fabric surface on said air flow forcollecting them into said recovery chute.
 10. A hand-held clipper as setforth in claim 6 wherein said cleaning head and said cutting head areeach detachably connectable to said mount base by means of a tongue andgroove arrangement between the head and the mount base so that the headmay be slid off the mount base, that sliding movement also engaging anddisengaging said detachably connected drive shaft.